Duo dancing all the way to Europe

Edwardsville High School junior Emily Rayburn and sophomore Madelyn Andree have been dancing since they were very young. Andree has danced in her mother’s dance studio, Premiere Performance, since the age of 2-and-a-half and Rayburn began taking movement classes at SIUE at age 5.

The two girls now spend nine to 10 hours a week dancing ballet under the direction of former professional ballerina Paula Beals to perfect their craft.

Their dedication to their art has paid off as both girls were recently chosen as the top 35 from over 400 ballet dancers to participate in the Blue Lake International Exchange Program. The program allows the girls to be a part of an international ballet ensemble that will perform in several European countries next summer.

Rayburn recalled when she became passionate about ballet and performing. “I think I realized whenever I started pointe when I was 10, 11 years old,” she said. “I was taking pointe in the summer for the first time and it was a lot of fun. That’s when I think it started getting serious. It was like, “This is awesome. I want to do this.””

“It’s always kind of been a major part of my life,” Andree said about her love of ballet. “I think I really started to realize that I wanted to spend the rest of my life dancing around the same time as Emily - when we were introduced to pointe and other styles like modern and jazz.”

Participating in the Blue Lake Fine Arts camp last summer in Michigan provided the girls with an opportunity to be considered for the organization’s international exchange program. In its 41st season of operation, the Blue Lake International Exchange program consists of a highly select group of talented young people from all over the U.S., Canada and 10 European countries.

Students selected for this program attend three rehearsals at Blue Lake during the fall and early spring. Then in June they arrive at Blue Lake for an intensive week of rehearsals before embarking on a three week goodwill tour of Central Europe. The students live in homes with host families in each community visited.

Both girls are looking forward to the cultural and professional experiences the program offers. “I’m really excited,” Rayburn said. “I’ve never been out of the U.S. before so I’m just really excited about seeing the sights and getting to know the foreign people. I’m also excited - just performing and travelling because that’s what a professional dancer does. It will be a good experience so I’ll get the feel for what it’s like when I’m actually doing it in life.”

“I’m really looking forward to staying with the host families because we really get to experience other cultures,” Andree said. “And if we get to go to France, it would be cool to see where ballet originated.”

Andree also thought the experience would help her to grow as a dancer. “We’ve always kind of been in the same spot with the same teachers and never really had other experiences so it will be nice to get a taste of what it’s like,” she said.

Darla Andree, Madelyn’s mother, owner of Premiere Performance Dance Studio and an SIUE graduate in theatre and dance, said the Blue Lake Camp and its international program offered the girls an opportunity to learn under some of the best instructors in professional ballet. “Two of their main instructors are affiliated with Ballet Met out of Columbus, Ohio, and that’s a pretty internationally well-known ballet company,” Darla said. “They are real disciplined about how the kids are going to dress - they try to make it pretty serious. They want to make it as much like a professional tour to give them a taste of a professional touring group for kids who are really serious about their art.”

Certainly both girls are quite serious about dancing. They both plan to dance professionally after college. “I’d like to do a contemporary-modern company and hopefully make it and travel around the world,” Rayburn said.

Of course a three-week trip to Europe and a one-in-a-lifetime experience to dance with a professional ensemble as a teenager isn’t free which is why the girls are conducting bake sales to help pay for their summer experience. They’ve already had one sale which Rayburn sincerely wished to thank those who made donations and supported them, but they also have two more bake sales planned in October. Visit the girls bake sale from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 17 and Oct. 31 at the Walgreens on Main St. in downtown Edwardsville.